Mixers, kettles, fryers, dryers and conveyors for food plants are built in stainless, where a pitted weld or a rough corner is a hygiene fault. The scarce people are welders and polishers with a clean hand.
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Share your requirementsA food processing machinery maker builds kettles, ribbon mixers, dryers, belt conveyors and slicers for bakeries, dairies, snack lines and canteen kitchens. The shop shears and rolls stainless sheet, welds the seams, and polishes them smooth so no residue can lodge. Motors, gearboxes and panels are fitted, the unit is run with water or product, and then an installation crew takes it into the customer's plant. A grainy weld or a dull crevice shows at once, and the buyer reads it as poor design. Welders and polishers are paid for hand skill, and installers must follow each food plant's entry and hygiene rules. See also HR for manufacturing.
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
GullyHR runs talent acquisition for permanent roles in food processing machinery makers. For each role we agree the job description with you, find and screen candidates against it, and support the offer through to joining. Tell us the role and the number of people, and we start there.
We recruit permanent employees. We do not supply contract or temporary staff.
Every business interviews, but few have a written process that works the same way for every role and every interviewer. GullyHR designs yours, from the role brief to the offer, trains your managers to run it, and can run it for you on the roles you hand us.
We agree what the role must deliver, the must-have and nice-to-have skills, and how each will be scored.
Screening call, assessment, interview rounds and decision points, sized to the role and the number of people you hire.
Structured questions for each role family and a rating guide, so two interviewers judge the same answer the same way.
A short briefing for your managers on what to ask, what to avoid and how to give a clear yes or no.
Who approves, how the offer is made, and how candidates are kept informed from first call to joining.
Few welders can lay a smooth, pinhole-free bead on thin sheet without warping it. Poor work has to be ground out and cannot be hidden.
Polishers breathe fine metal dust and stand in noise all day. Good ones drift to jobs with easier conditions.
A dairy or snack plant will have its own dress, entry and tool rules. One careless act can stop a visit and embarrass the owner.
A different hopper height or outlet is asked for half way. The floor works from several drawing versions and the foreman holds the job in their head.
Pay is settled person by person. A raise given to keep one TIG welder soon sets the expectation for the whole bay.
Festival and harvest seasons bring a rush of orders. The shop then swings between night overtime and idle hands.
Start with the topics that matter most here: Compensation, Payroll and Benefits; Health, Safety and Wellbeing; Retention and Attrition Management. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for manufacturing, not in general.
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Who leaves, when, why, and which of them mattered.
How many people, in which roles, by when, and what they will cost.
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Two routes, one for complaints, one for conduct, kept separate.
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
The pieces a food processing machinery makers business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
A short trial on thin sheet, judged by foreman and inspector for bead, warp and pinholes, then tied to a pay band.
A short trial on thin sheet, judged by foreman and inspector for bead, warp and pinholes, then tied to a pay band. See compensation benchmarking.
Polishers get their own band, proper dust masks, ear protection and set breaks.
Polishers get their own band, proper dust masks, ear protection and set breaks. See health, safety and wellbeing.
A one-page note on that customer's entry rules, dress, tool checks and the person to report to.
A one-page note on that customer's entry rules, dress, tool checks and the person to report to. Repeat it when they return for commissioning.
One named person signs off each change, so the floor never builds from a version the customer has already replaced.
One named person signs off each change, so the floor never builds from a version the customer has already replaced.
A calendar of known customer peaks so extra welders and overtime are arranged early.
A calendar of known customer peaks so extra welders and overtime are arranged early. See recruitment process consulting.
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. Work through the checks using a recent operating period. The time needed depends on the records you hold; note missing evidence and use the findings to choose a priority.
Share your requirementsConfirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
A skill-based pay scale for welders and polishers, so raises follow a rule and not a bargain.
Safer routines for buffing dust, grinding noise and hot work on stainless.
Finding stainless welders and fitters before the festival rush, using a clear trial piece.
A learning path that takes helpers towards hygienic TIG work over time.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in manufacturing, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
Why the best operator can struggle as shift supervisor, what it costs the line, and a practical way to choose, prepare and back new supervisors in any kind of plant.
7 min readRead article
Simple variable pay structures for product and engineering teams: four options, why individual metrics backfire, a build plan and a one page outline to adapt.
6 min readRead article
A shift, weekly and monthly safety routine for rubber plants that names who checks platen guards, mill trip bars, autoclave doors, burst-test cages and slings, and who acts on near misses.
7 min readRead article
What really keeps mobile app and web developers in a small firm: stay conversations, growth paths, fair release rules and a risk sheet an owner can use this month.
6 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Set a trial on thin stainless and have the foreman and inspector grade the bead and the finish. Use the same piece for every candidate so the results compare.
Dust, noise and tired arms for modest pay. A skilled grade, proper masks and breaks help, and people stay where the work is respected.
Note when customers order most, plan extra welders ahead and keep a list of trusted outside hands. Check any outside arrangement with a qualified professional.
It can work if rework is deducted fairly and every seam is checked. Without a check, speed wins and the beads get rougher.
Give a written brief on dress, hygiene and conduct. Send a new installer out with an experienced one first, and ask the customer for feedback after each visit.
We would sort welders by skill, count recent re-welds and re-polishing, and ask how installers are briefed for food plants. A fitting opening job is a stainless trial and grading scale with a seam check. After a first talk, we write down the scope and agree it.
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